Clippers coach Doc Rivers knows what Derek Fisher is going through in his first season as coach of the New York Knicks, who were in town to take on the Clippers in a New Year’s Eve afternoon game at Staples Center.

Fisher, the former guard who won five NBA championship rings during two stints with the Lakers, had seen his team play to a 5-28 record in its first 33 games. That’s got to be painful, Rivers suggested.

“I’ve gone through it, a lot of coaches have,” Rivers said prior to tipoff. “It’s no fun, you know? It’s very difficult to not win. I don’t care what you’re in. If you play tennis, golf, basketball as a player or a coach, no one wants to lose. And it’s hard. It’s brutally hard on the coach. I’ve been through it and it’s very difficult.

“You have to try to stick to your guns and teach; you’re almost trying to teach a culture over winning, and that’s hard. None of us are built that way, I know I wasn’t. It happened to me in Orlando early on. We somehow squeezed out 41 (wins) the first time.”

Rivers coached the Magic beginning in 1999-2000, during which they went 41-41. He was relieved of his duties after a poor start to 2003-04. He began his coaching tenure at Boston in 2004-05 and in 2006-07 suffered through an 18-game losing streak.

“I don’t think people believe — and I know Derek a little bit — but you honestly as a coach believe you’re going to win that night every night,” Rivers said. “And I did. We lost 18 in a row and I believed every night we were going to win and every night I got my heart broke.

“That’s just coaching. It’s part of it. And you have to deal with it.”

Fisher is doing just that. He patiently and respectfully answered all the tough questions as he stood in the hallway outside of the Knicks’ locker room.

“It’s been difficult, but that doesn’t define our life and whether we’re good people or whether or not we know how to play basketball just because we aren’t winning right now,” Fisher said. “I think it just means you have a lot of work to do, and you have to figure out how to get better.

“And I don’t think your record should ever change that. I’ve been on teams that have been 28-5 and just as hungry to be better than we were at that time, and so our team is learning how to be that consistent and just having a relentless mind-set to being good and being great.”

Different job

Fisher might have been a terrific player, but now he has to prove himself as a coach. The rookie knows it.

“Well, I think that goes for any new job that you take that is different than the one you had before,” he said. “You can’t rest on anything you accomplished when you used to work in the kitchen and now you’re managing the restaurant. It’s completely different.”

Rivers responds to dig

Rivers was asked what he thought about a report from David Aldridge of NBA.com that the Clippers’ players don’t like one another. Aldridge got his information from an alleged insider.

Rivers scoffed.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said about players liking each other, “but I don’t get that sense. No.”

Rivers had gotten wind of this.

“I heard it five minutes ago,” he said. “So, honestly, I think you know me, but I don’t care what anyone else outside the locker room thinks anyway. I really don’t because it’s not going to matter.”

Post DeAndre Jordan had a quick retort.

“There’s moments in time where I hate Blake (Griffin), for like a 45-second span,” he said, kiddingly. He then said he isn’t buying any of it.